


Big Brother

by devovitsuasartes



Category: Marvel (Comics), Venom (Comics)
Genre: Other, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-07 21:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16416170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devovitsuasartes/pseuds/devovitsuasartes
Summary: Eddie and Venom ask Spider-Man to be Sleeper's first host/mentor. Based on aTumblr prompt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read Venom: The Nativity or Venom: First Host, basically all you need to know is that Venom spawned a new symbiote called Sleeper with a bunch of cool new powers. Eddie and Venom didn't want Sleeper to turn into a monster like Venom's last six children, so they decided to nurture it as much as possible during its early life. This is a canon-divergent end to the First Host arc.

“You want me to _what_?”

When he got out of bed that morning, Peter never would have guessed that he’d be standing here in Eddie Brock’s apartment - _Eddie Brock_ , of all people - staring down at an unsettlingly familiar dark moving blob cupped in Eddie’s hands.

“They’re getting sick of being cooped up,” Eddie explained in pleading tones. “We’re trying to do it right this time. The others - the other symbiotes that Venom spawned - they all turned out bad. They all turned into monsters. We don’t want that for Sleeper. We want something… better.”

Well, that definitely raised more questions than it answered. The questions crowded and jostled each other in Peter’s mind, so that the only thing he could get out was, “Sleeper?”

“That’s their name.” And sure enough, upon hearing the name the blob shifted in Eddie’s hands, a few tendrils creeping out, as though curious. One tendril wrapped itself around Eddie’s thumb, another around his index finger.

“That’s your…” Peter was on the verge of hysterical laughter, he could feel it. “That’s your baby. Yours and Venom’s?”

“Our child, yes.”

“How does that even…” Peter abruptly started shaking his head. “You know what? Nope. Don’t need the mental image. Please feel free not to explain.”

“Will you do it?” Eddie persisted.

Oh, right. The favor. “You want me to be… Sleeper’s host? Me?” Peter raised an incredulous eyebrow. “But you _hate_ me. Venom hates me. Of all the people… I’m the one who screwed Venom up in the first place, remember?”

Eddie’s face twitched in a way that made it clear Venom was saying something to him. “You’ll do better this time,” he said aloud, in a way that made the statement sound a lot like a threat.

Peter looked down at the blob again. Damn it. He had a hard time saying no when someone was asking for his help. “For how long?” he asked carefully.

“Just a few months,” Eddie said quickly. “Just to help Sleeper find their feet, guide them to maturity. Symbiotes don’t exactly have childhoods. Even this…” He waved his hand at the tank by the window. “What we’ve been doing, nurturing them, it’s not what’s usually done on Venom’s planet. The symbiotes just spawn and leave their offspring behind to fend for themselves. But that’s how Carnage was made and…” Eddie’s voice shook a little. “We can’t let Sleeper turn out like Carnage. It has to be better this time.”

Yeah, another Carnage running around didn’t sound like a lot of fun. Silently cursing himself for being such a soft touch, Peter asked carefully, “What would I have to do?”

“The same sort of thing you always do,” Eddie replied. “Protect people. Save people. Stop bad people. Be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” That last part came out a little sarcastically, but Eddie looked sincere. “And… be kind. Be kind to Sleeper. I think that’s what was missing before. The kindness.”

Peter had a suspicion that he was being scolded. But maybe it was deserved. Looking back… maybe he should have handled it better, the first time around. It would have saved a lot of people from a lot of pain.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Fine, I’ll take care of them, for a little while. They’d better not make any messes on my carpet, though.”

The blob appeared to tremble in offense.

Eddie nodded stiffly. He didn’t exactly look delighted that Peter had accepted - in fact, he almost looked as though he’d wished Peter had said no. He held out his cupped hands, and Peter tentatively reached out a hand.

“Gently,” Eddie warned, and Peter was about to retort when he realized that Eddie was talking to the symbiote, not him.

Slowly, as if mocking their father, the blob extended a tendril towards Peter’s fingers. Sleeper felt a little cool to the touch. More tendrils reached out, pulling the mass off Eddie’s hand and onto Peter’s arm, and then Peter felt them sinking into his skin. He shuddered, the sensation bringing back bad memories, but he let it happen.

“It’s alright,” Eddie said softly, and this time Peter knew that it wasn’t addressed to him. He could see black tendrils gathered at Eddie’s shoulders, as if anxiously peering over them. “They’ll be OK.”

“Are you sure Venom’s cool with this?” Peter asked nervously, feeling the symbiote spreading through his body, getting to know their new environs.

“It was Venom’s idea.”

Weird. So weird. Peter couldn’t say that he really understood it - why Venom would trust him, of all people, not to turn their child into another monster. All he could do was was try to make sure that trust wasn’t misplaced.

**Hungry!**

Peter jumped a little as the shrill voice rattled through his head.

“Oh,” Eddie said, rushing over to the couch, which had a suitcase lying on it. “Yeah, you’ll want this.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “You packed some jammies and a toothbrush?”

“Not exactly.” Eddie unzipped the corner of the suitcase so that Peter could see inside. There were about a thousand bars of chocolate in there. “It’s this or brains. I figured you’d prefer chocolate.”

“Well what do you know, there’s an upside to this.”

Suddenly his hand jerked out right in front of him, out of his control. Peter stared at it in alarm, trying and failing to move it.

“Nicely!” Eddie scolded.

Peter regained control of his hand. He wiggled his fingers, but kept it outstretched. He could sense that the symbiote wanted something. Sure enough, a tendril soon extended from his palm, reaching out, and one of the tendrils curling over Eddie’s shoulder wriggled forward, until the two symbiotes were touching. Peter jumped as he heard Venom’s voice in his head.

**We will miss you.**

**We will return, parent.**

**You are our favorite child.**

**We know.**

“Not really supposed to say that,” Eddie muttered.

**But it’s true, Eddie.**

The tendrils disconnected then, Venom drawing back into Eddie’s body. Eddie stepped forward, a stern expression on his face.

“This isn’t for you.”

“Wha-”

Before Peter could finish the question, the breath was squeezed out of him as Eddie wrapped him a bear hug that lifted him about two inches off the ground.

“Be good,” Eddie whispered. It sounded more like a plea than a command.

Peter grabbed one of the chocolate bars from the suitcase and asked Eddie to drop the rest off at his apartment (the window was always open). Pulling his mask back on, he crawled out of the window and up to the top of the building, then perched on the corner of the roof and pulled the bottom of his mask back up just enough to expose his mouth, so he could wolf down the chocolate. He wished he’d grabbed a second bar. He was starving.

When he was done, Peter screwed up the chocolate wrapper into a ball, bound it with a little webbing to weigh it down, then closed one eye, took aim, and threw it off the roof. Several seconds later, it landed neatly in a trash can on the street below.

“First rule of being a good guy: no littering.”

**Want to climb that building.**

“That building? Stark Tower?”

**Yes.**

“What the hell, I wouldn’t mind giving Tony a scare. Let’s see what you can do.”

Peter somehow felt the symbiote grin, and then Sleeper was pouring out of his skin, covering him, becoming him. He was taller now, and when he looked down at his hands they were yellow claws, tendrils peeling off them like smoke. Peter forced himself to wilfully cede some control, to allow Sleeper to flex their new body, stretch their new limbs. It didn’t feel quite like being possessed, or like a tug-of-war for control - more like a balance. A symbiosis.

“OK, Sleeper. Let’s go.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People wanted more so here's more I guess lol.

Peter was more embarrassed than he was worried. He was never going to live this down: being lured into a trap by Shocker. Shocker! This was so humiliating.

He'd been on his way to pick up a pizza, not wanting to order for delivery when New York was been assailed by driving rain. Perhaps under other circumstances he might have been lazy and just given the soaked pizza delivery guy an extra tip, but he felt a responsibility to set a good example for Sleeper. To its credit, the symbiote had slithered out from Peter's sleeve and formed itself into the shape of a black umbrella - so convincingly that no one had even looked at them twice.

Unfortunately, before Peter had even reached the pizza place he'd spotted Shocker robbing a liquor store across the street. Without hesitation, Sleeper had enveloped Peter and the two of them had charged across the street. Shocker had taken off running, leading them through a back alley and into a warehouse and then into...

 **"A trap?"** Sleeper screeched, outraged.

Shocker was practically dancing on the other side of the thick bars of the cage that had slammed down. "I got you, I got you!" he said excitedly. "I got you..." He hesitated then, and squinted uncertainly. "Spider-Man?"

**"Not Spider-Man. We are Sleeper."**

Peter kind of wanted to argue, but he couldn't unmask in front of Shocker.

"Oh, that's Spider-Man alright." An unpleasantly familiar voice rang out over a speaker system that had been set up around the cage. Peter groaned inwardly as he realized who had really set up this trap. He should have known that Shocker wasn't smart enough to pull this off.

 **"Fisk,"**  Sleeper snarled, plucking the name out of Peter's mind.

The Kingpin chuckled throatily over the speakers. "Interesting new symbiote you've picked up there, Spider-Man," he boomed. "I've been searching for one of those parasites for quite some time. And look, you've brought one to me."

 **"Not a parasite!"** Sleeper shouted back shrilly. Peter could feel the symbiote's anger thrumming through him, felt the unsettling desire to bite off Kingpin's head, and Shocker's head for good measure.

While he was still trying to process these alien desires, Sleeper shot out a tentacle towards the bars of the cage - clearly intending to grab Shocker. However, at that point a new sound came over the speakers - a horrible, horrible, deafeningly loud screeching wail and suddenly Peter was in some of the worse pain he'd ever felt in his life. He and Sleeper fell to the ground, the suit quivering and shaking itself loose around him, threatening to separate entirely as Peter writhed in sympathetic agony. 

This was _killing_ Sleeper. Peter could feel it. He could feel the symbiote weakening, and all he could think about was Eddie's pleading look as he'd handed his child over. Venom's tender goodbye. Their trust. Peter couldn't go back to them and tell them that he'd gotten their offspring killed, or kidnapped, he just couldn't, but he also couldn't do anything else while drowning in this sea of noise...

Suddenly, one of the speakers cut out in a fizz of sparks, followed swiftly by the other. The noise trailed away, like the dying cry of a moose, and the pain began to ease. Sleeper was weakened, though, and struggling to reform around Peter. He could feel the symbiote's fear and confusion, and he did his best to soothe it.

Someone was fighting nearby, outside of the cage. Peter squinted with his human eye through Sleeper's broken mask and saw a red blur whacking Shocker hard in the face with some kind of baton, dodging his powered-up gauntlets and laughing as it vaulted over his head. When the red blur stilled momentarily, preparing for the next attack, Peter recognized him and sighed in relief.

 **"Friend?"** Sleeper guessed.

"Friend," Daredevil confirmed, ducking under Shocker's crackling fists and knocking the wind out of him with a swift punch to the stomach. While the inept criminal was still wheezing, Hell's Kitchen's resident vigilante ripped the gauntlets off and threw them across the room. Shocker's eyes widened as he realized he was defenseless, but before he could try to plead or run, he was out cold on the floor.

Daredevil stood there for a moment, silhouetted in the light straining in from the boarded-up window of the warehouse, looking like an illustration straight from the darker pages of the Bible. Then he lifted his head, and Peter knew that he was sniffing the air.

"Spider-Man?" Daredevil ventured, approaching the bars of the cage. "There's something different about you."

 **"Get us out of here, Devil-Man!"** Sleeper replied shortly, still sounding pained.

"Well boy, you don't sound like Spider-Man."

**"He is in here. We are Sleeper."**

Daredevil tilted his head curiously. "Well, if Kingpin and Shocker were out to get you then I guess we must be on the same side." He slammed his fist down on a red button on the outside of the cage, and the door slid up. "How about we call the cops on this idiot..." He nodded in the general direction of the unconscious Shocker. "...Then go get something to eat."

**"Yes. Food. Hungry."**

 

* * *

 

"Thanks again for coming to our rescue," Peter mumbled through a mouthful of pizza. It had been cold by the time they'd arrived at the pizzeria, but that's what microwaves were for. 

"Actually, I was just coming to shut that horrible noise off. I was a couple of blocks away and it nearly deafened me," Matt explained, scrubbing a hand wearily through his red hair. He was still wearing the rest of his costume, but in the safety of Peter's apartment he felt comfortable taking his mask off. 

Peter, too, had shed the suit, and he could feel Sleeper dozing underneath his skin, exhausted. They'd picked up two grocery bags full of chocolate on the way back, and Peter had wolfed them down in the street, ignoring the stares of passers-by.

"So I guess you want to know about the symbiote?" Peter ventured.

"I'm a little curious," Matt chuckled. "It's got a really funky smell to it."

"Eddie told me it secretes a bunch of weird pheromones. They can do all kinds of stuff."

Matt quirked an eyebrow. "Eddie as in Eddie Brock? You two are on speaking terms now?"

"Kind of have to be, since I'm babysitting his kid."

 **Not a baby** , Sleeper interjected crossly. 

"Just a figure of speech," Peter soothed. He took another bite of pizza, and felt the symbiote settle down a little.

Matt's gaze was as vacant and unfixed as ever, but Peter could tell from his body language that he was paying careful attention. "You sure you know what you've gotten yourself into, Pete?" he asked.

Peter shrugged. "I never really know what I've gotten myself into. Hasn't stopped me before. Venom asked for my help. It's what we do, right? Help people."

"People, yes. Venom...?" Matt let the question mark speak for itself.

 **The Devil-Man is being _rude_** , Sleeper hissed. Peter had spent a fair bit of time explaining the concept of rudeness to the symbiote, and now Sleeper seemed to delight in pointing out when people were being rude. Which, given that they lived in New York City, happened a lot.

"The Devil-Man saved our butts tonight," said Peter. He saw Matt's mouth quirk into a grin at the name. "He's allowed to be a little rude."

**Can we be rude after saving people's butts?**

"No."

**Not fair!**

"I know, buddy."

"No offence, Parker, but you kind of sound like a crazy person right now," Matt interrupted casually.

"Give me a break, I have an alien in my head."

"Oh OK, well that doesn't sound crazy at all."


	3. Chapter 3

The thief had been running so hard that his back was drenched in sweat and his breath was wheezing in his chest, to which the old lady's purse was still clutched protectively. He ducked left into an alley, cut across two streets, skidded into a parking lot behind a boarded-up old diner and leaned against the wall, panting. He was still acutely terrified, but he also felt relief washing over him until...

The monster landed in front of him, one clawed hand burying itself in the asphalt as it broke its fall. The thief squeaked as he stared up at it - the black skin that seemed to somehow be moving, the sickly green-yellow markings, the wide grin pulled wider by the twin holes in the side of its face. It stepped closer and closer still, until it was towering over him, and then it said...

**"Stealing is selfish and wrong!"**

"Wuh... wuh..."

**"You try to solve _your_ problems by causing problems for others. That's wrong!"**

The thief was somehow more terrified than he would have been if the monster threatened to eat his spine. He wasn't expecting to be lectured. Panicking, he fumbled around in his waistband and pulled out the gun he had there, pointing it at the black mass in front of him and firing off a couple of wild shots. The monster made a squeaky sound of irritation and then suddenly the thief was enveloped in a sticky blanket and he felt... he felt...

Peter watched as the thief teetered on his feet, wrapped up in the webbing, and then toppled forward. Sleeper caught him as he fell, lowering him gently to the ground, and then tore a hole in the webbing to retrieve the purse.

 **"Nice work,"** Peter said, hearing his voice come out in Sleeper's scraping tones.

 **"We did well,"** Sleeper replied, using the same mouth and vocal chords. It sounded smug.

**"That sleeper webbing is something else. I don't like leaving the bad guys thrashing. Sometimes they hurt themselves."**

**"Like a mouse in a glue trap."** Sleeper didn't sound totally averse to the idea.

They'd been experimenting with Sleeper's various pheromones in the weeks that they'd been together. There was one that had a calming effect, which was useful in panicking crowds, and another that could make people so suggestible that Peter actually managed to convince a guy to stop robbing a bank using words alone. Then there was one that smelled like rotten eggs and made everyone within a 20 foot radius start puking uncontrollably. That one was Sleeper's favorite.

The symbiote wasn't... bad, exactly. Certainly nothing like Carnage, nor even like Venom in his darker days. In fact, Sleeper seemed to have a keen sense of righteousness, and Peter could feel its sheer youthful enthusiasm as they chased down bad guys. But Sleeper also seemed to enjoy the idea of exacting retribution on the bad guys, which Peter was less comfortable with. He hoped that it was just a phase. He _really_ hoped that it wasn't somehow his influence - that Sleeper hadn't plucked some dark secret sadism from Peter's own subconscious and run away with it.

Sleeper melted back into Peter's skin, then, leaving him wearing his regular Spider-suit. Peter reached into the purse, trying not to pry too much as he searched for the old lady's wallet, and checked the driver's license - which thankfully had an address on it. 

"We can drop it off on the way home..."

**Parents!**

"Parents?" 

Peter looked up into the darkness of the early fall evening and - sure enough - there was Eddie Brock, lurking under a broken streetlight, trying and failing to look inconspicuous. Eddie didn't really have the right frame for blending into the background.

Sleeper was excited, and suddenly Peter felt himself being half-dragged over to Eddie against his will. When they got close enough, Sleeper's tendrils shot out of Peter's chest and were greeted halfway by black, oily curls emerging from Eddie's body. The two symbiotes - parent and offspring - embraced in a strange dance while Eddie stared at his shoes.

"We were just out buying milk," he explained gruffly. Sure enough, there was a gallon of milk dangling from Eddie's left hand, looking suspiciously like a prop.

**Father!**

Sleeper had separated from Venom momentarily and turned its attention to Venom's host. Eddie's pained expression softened abruptly, and he held out a hand. Sleeper's tendrils curled around his wrist, twining between his fingers like a cat's cradle. Peter had to physically hold himself back from cracking a joke just to break the intensity of the moment.

"We have food," Eddie grunted abruptly. "At the house. If you haven't eaten. Or if you're still hungry. We're always hungry."

**Yes! Food!**

"Uh, Sleeper says..."

"I know." Eddie raised his hand, which was still tangled up with his strange symbiote child. "I heard."

 

* * *

 

Dinner with Eddie Brock was certainly not something that Peter had ever imagined himself taking part in, but he was smart enough to know that it wasn't really about the food - any more than Aunt May inviting him back home to do his laundry was really about laundry. She knew there was a laundromat directly underneath Peter's apartment, and she never commented on it when he only brought a small bag with a few shirts in it. She'd cut him a slice of cherry pie at the old kitchen table, and they'd chat and laugh for hours after the washing was done.

Once they were done eating, Sleeper slipped free of Peter for the first time since being handed over by its parents and clambered into its old tank by the window. Peter couldn't help but notice that it barely fit any more. He wandered over to the desk where Eddie's laptop sat and peered at the newspaper clippings there.

MYSTERIOUS NEW MENACE INTERFERES WITH BANK ROBBERY. ALIEN MONSTER RETURNS, DISRUPTS POLICE WORK. WHAT DOES THE 'SLEEPER' WANT FROM US? NYPD REFUSE TO APPREHEND TOXIC SLIME CREATURE.

Peter smiled. Underneath Jameson's characteristically hysterical headlines were accounts from people praising the strange new superhero who had rescued them, offering their thanks, telling their stories about catastrophes that had almost happened, but been averted. They were carefully pasted to the wall, dismissive of any potential damage to Eddie's security deposit, in the same way that a proud parent might display a glowing report card on the refrigerator. 

A shadow fell over the newspaper cuttings and Peter glanced over his shoulder. Eddie looked a little embarrassed, but then perched himself on the edge of the desk (which creaked under his muscular bulk) and gazed across the room at the symbiote-filled tank.

"I know what you're thinking," Brock said, his voice hardened and defensive. "Even if you won't say it."

Peter stared at him, uncertain. "What am I thinking?"

Eddie scoffed. "Me and Venom, we've been together for a long time, but I still know how this must look from the outside." He breathed out slowly through his nose, silent for a several long seconds before he continued. "Do you know what we felt, when we held Sleeper for the first time?"

Once again, Peter was tempted to make a joke - but it didn't feel like the right time. "Love?" he hazarded.

Eddie shook his head. "That came later. No. We were terrified. More frightened than we've ever been. You don't know what it's like, Parker, to hold your child in your hands, to know that it's out there in the world and it could come to harm, that there are people who want to harm it." Eddie's brow was so deeply furrowed that his face looked almost like a Halloween mask. "That's what parenthood is. It's fear."

Peter knew there was a reason he didn't come over to Eddie Brock's place for dinner more often.

"I... appreciate you looking after Sleeper," Eddie gritted out, like the words were physically paining him. "We've had our differences..."

"You kept trying to kill me," Peter reminded him. "Over and over again..."

"Like I said." Eddie glowered before continuing. "But... You have done well with Sleeper. And we're not so afraid any more."

Outside, in the distance, someone leaned on their car horn and yelled. There was a soft murmur of activity seeping in through the window, along with a cool evening breeze. Eddie's head was bowed, his face unreadable now.

Suddenly, a memory came to Peter and he grinned to himself. "Do you remember that one time you were trying to kill me," he said. "And I put my Spider-suit on a skeleton to make you think I was dead?"

Eddie glared, but it didn't stop Peter from bursting into peals of uncontrollable laughter.

 **"We were so happy,"** Venom snarled through Eddie's throat. **"That was the happiest we have ever been."**

"I know!" Peter gasped, wiping away tears. "And then when I showed up again, _months_ later, and you were just sunbathing on the beach... The look on your face!"

Sleeper stirred in the tank, peering over the edge to see what all the noise was about. Peter was laughing so hard that he had to prop himself up against the wall. Eddie was still glaring furiously.

There was probably only a 30% chance that Peter was going to leave this apartment alive.

 _What a family_ , he thought.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there really was a comic where Spider-Man convinced Venom he was dead by putting his Spider-suit on a skeleton. And then when he showed up again Venom was enjoying a happy retirement and sunbathing on the beach. Comic books are the greatest.


End file.
